She's Alive
by beachchick4
Summary: Oneshot based on 7x01! Basically Tony's reaction to finding out Ziva's alive. I know, lame summary, but it's better than it sounds! Please read and review!


**I thought the premier was AMAZING and absolutely had to write something about it!!! As great as it was, there were a few things I was disappointed about. One of those being Tony's reaction to seeing Ziva still alive. He had no expression on**** his face or anything to say about her being alive! So I decided to write what I think would have been going on in his mind at that time. Please review!**

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_Tony felt pain vibrating in his heart when he told the terrorist the hardest thing he had ever had to accept . . . "If I could drag her back, I would do it in a heartbeat. B__ut that's impossible. Ziva David is dead."_

Tony felt rather smug knowing he had pissed Salim off so much. Served him right. He had stormed out of the cell after throwing his caf-pow onto the ground. Briefly he spoke to McGee about when to act, he stopped when he heard the yells from outside the door. Suddenly Tony saw Salim roughly dragging a person with a black sack covering their head. Tony watched as the terrorist shoved the bound captive into the chair across from him.

Tony frowned, wondering exactly Salim had up his sleeve. He also wondered who the person across from him was, it looked like it was a woman. Tony listened as Salim gave them commands, he didn't want this unknown woman to die and he also couldn't give up anything more than he already had. Silently he prayed that Gibbs would get there with backup before there were any casualties.

"I will give you a moment to decide who lives." Salim told them.

Tony looked at the person across from him gasp as the hood was ripped off of her head. For a moment, Tony couldn't breathe. _Is this a side effect of the drugs?_ thought Tony. _I must be more dehydrated than I thought, I've got to be seeing things. _But then Tony realized, he wasn't seeing things. He was in such shock that he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he could only stare. In front of him, sat the "dead" Ziva David. Only she was alive.

Tony looked at her small body, it had appeared she had lost weight. Her lips were cracked and she looked exhausted. She was dripping in sweat and covered in small scratches. But the most important change were her eyes. There was no fire in them, it looked like she had given up. Just like they had given up and accepted that fact that she was dead. Only she wasn't.

In the short moments he stared at her, thoughts raced through Tony's mind. _Where has she been all this time? Has she been here? For all these months? What have they done to her? I should have looked harder! I know Ziva's a good swimmer, I should have known she'd make it. Is she okay? She has to be okay! She has to be!_

Ziva wasn't saying anything either, just staring back at him with her sad eyes. Tony didn't know what to say so he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Well, how was your summer?"

A classic Dinozzio comment in this sort of situation. But Ziva, did not have the heart for jokes. She had forgotten how to laugh.

"Out of everyone in the world who could have found me, it had to be you?"

Under other circumstances Tony would have been hurt. Not that he would ever let that show. But at the moment he was too happy that she was alive to care. _She's alive._

"You're welcome. So you glad to see me?"

"You should not have come." Ziva's voice cracked slightly as she spoke.

"Well, all right then. Nice catching up. I'll be going now." Tony joked as he tried and failed to stand up, "Oh yeah, I forgot. Taken prisoner."

Ziva gave him a face that asked if he was crazy. Usually Ziva would at least amuse him by going along with his jokes or make a smart remark. But Tony was beginning to see that this was not the same Ziva they left behind. But still, it was Ziva. And she was alive.

"Are you all right, McGee?" Ziva asked without looking away from Tony.

"I'm just glad you're alive." McGee answered, speaking what Tony had been thinking.

"You, thought I was dead?" Ziva asked, sounding surprised.

"Oh, oh yeah." Tony answered, feeling the tug at his heart when he remembered. _But you're not. You're alive. You're alive._

"Then why are you here?"

"Well, McGee, McGee didn't think you were dead-"

"Tony," she interrupted him, "why are you here?"

He began to regret taking the truth drug when he answered, "Couldn't live without you, I guess."

A look of sadness came over Ziva's face as she said, "So you will die with me."

_No, you won't die. You won't die again. You're alive._

"You should have left me alone." Ziva said in a defeated voice.

"Okay, tried, couldn't. Listen, you should know I've taken some sort of truth serum so if there's any questions you don't want to know the answer to, don't-"

"I did not ask anyone to put themselves in harms way for me. I do not deserve it."

The worst part was that Ziva thought it was justified.

Shortly after she said, "Now you tell Salim everything he wants to know, and you try to save yourselves. I am ready to die."

_No. NO! You are not allowed to die. You WILL stay alive._

"That's not how it works." McGee told her.

"How what works?" Ziva asked, sounding impatient.

"The plan." Tony smiled.

"You, have an escape plan?" asked Ziva. Her voice shook and her eyes showed disbelief and sadness. It killed Tony to see her so defeated.

Tony nodded yes and Ziva tried to explain to him the flaws in his plan. Tony then explained to her what their plan had been all along.

At the end of his explanation she asked, "Wait, you, got captured, on purpose?"

The shock in her voice was clearly heard. He couldn't blame her, she had spent months in this hell hole so of course she couldn't imagine how anyone would go in willingly.

"Yep." he told her.

"These men, are killers Tony." she whispered, looking slightly down. But he could see the agony in her eyes. The fear.

_But they didn't kill you. You're alive. She's alive._

"I know. That's why we have to stay alive long enough to not get dead."

"That would invlovle, being rescued." Ziva questioned. Tony could see she didn't want to, couldn't believe it. The prospect of rescue had become foreign to her. Too good to possible be true.

"Yes it would."

"How long would it take?"

"I don't know, how long do you think I've been talking."

"Tony, what's the plan?!"

Tony could tell that she had waited more than long enough for rescue so he explained their plan. Then, he gently asked her, "Ziva, can you fight?"

He hated to ask anything more from her, after all she'd been through, but he had to ask. She looked up at him with her big, sorrowful eyes and he instantly knew the answer. The single tear that fell down her face and mixed with her sweat confirmed it. She was probably dehydrated, malnourished, weak, injured . . .

Suddenly Salim burst through the door and told them they were leaving, without prisoners. Tony watched in horror and rage as he heard Ziva gasp when Salim grabbed her by the hair and held a knife to her throat.

_I can't let her die. She can't die. She won't die. She's alive._

Tony was frustrated when Ziva told Salim rescuers would be coming but he was angry when she told Salim to kill and her and spare them. If anything, it would be the other way around.

He was relieved when McGee kicked Salim to the ground, taking away any immediate threat to Ziva.

Tony distracted Salim until he knew the moment was right. Until he knew Gibbs would save them.

"Remember when I told you my boss was a sniper?" Tony asked.

Moments later Tony watched Salim get shot in the head, dead. It was more than he deserved, after what he'd done to Ziva. But it would have to do.

Suddenly there was gunfire outside the window, Tony watched Ziva's face turn to terror and shock. Terror of the outside danger, shock that her torturer was finally dead. After McGee had released Tony from his bonds and a shot from outside had killed their guard Tony quickly undid Ziva's bonds as well and realized she would not be able to keep up with them.

"Come on, all right Ziva, here we go." Tony said as he and McGee lifted her up, one of her arms around each of them, supporting her body weight, with Tony holding one of her hands. They hobbled down the hallway and briefly stopped as a man a few feet away from them was shot dead. They cautiously approached the corner and saw their rescuer. Tony's face broke into his famous grin, as did McGee's. Tony briefly saw Ziva's small smile and face of shock and relief.

"Let's go home." Gibbs told them.

Later when they had returned to NCIS and Abby was embracing a broken Ziva, Tony watched them. It was then that it really sunk in. Ziva was alive. She was really and truly alive. She was breathing and she was standing only a few yards away. Her eyes, her heart, her soul . . . they may have come back cracked. But they could heal. Tony would make sure of that personally. He would have never gotten that chance is she dead. She wasn't though, she was alive. Ziva's alive. A miracle, that's the only explanation. It seemed so unreal. Like a dream . . . but it wasn't one.

She's alive.

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